Image via Northwestern University //

Way of the future…

Pushing gaming forward in a totally sustainable way, researchers from Northwestern University and the Delft University of Technology have come up with a sick new Game Boy titled ‘Engage’, which gets power from the sun as well as the pressing of its buttons. The device is still relatively basic, and can only play games like Tetris, but this is still huge in terms of sustainable gaming.

The Engage has a set of small solar panels on its front and draws power from when its buttons are pressed. Together, the two power sources produce 10 seconds of play time. That might not sound like a lot, but by continuing to button mash and play, the player actually prolongs the battery of the device, and it continues playing without disrupting the players’ progress. All game data will be continually saved as well, so once the device notices it’s on low power, it creates checkpoints and only stores “data that has been changed from the previous checkpoint.”

Look, most people are still gonna take their Nintendo Switch over this badboy, but it definitely is an important step forward that could lead to a significant increase in sustainable gaming. Speaking on the device, one of the co-leads on the project said “Sustainable gaming will become a reality, and we made a major step in that direction – by getting rid of the battery completely. With our platform, we want to make a statement that it is possible to make a sustainable gaming system that brings fun and joy to the user.”

Pretty cool, check out the Engage in action below.